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Agent Pendergast’s Secrets

Authors: Douglas Preston & Lincoln Childs

The mystery of the museum beast and opening day massacre is long behind him, so journalist Bill Smithback has his sights on other record-breaking stories and on getting his longtime girlfriend, Nora, to move in with him. Everything seems ordinary, but something suspicious and dark is lurking just beneath the surface. When a pale FBI agent shows up on scene, the mystery descends into chaos, which descends into death, long buried secrets, and a family tie-in for the enigmatic Agent Pendergast.

Enter the finding of a charnel house, right where a powerful company with a big-time exec is excavating to bring the latest and greatest to the real-estate market. The firm won’t budge on their deadlines and destruction, and the police aren’t interested in ancient history. But Pendergast knows that the secrets of this pit tie into present day murders, and soon brings Nora in to quickly investigate the grisly finds before they are destroyed.

The discovery puts Nora on edge, and soon she is risking her museum job to help Pendergast, even though he remains secretive about the modern connection. Could it be that this killer is a little too close and personal to him? That the confidences revealed are somewhat his own? As the story continues and the rag-tag group sort through clues, we’re privy to Pendergast’s own recollections, his ability to go inward, to imagine, to unwind, to dissect legend and clues, until we see the profile of a killer with grand delusions that could put the world in danger.

Cabinet of Curiosities is a strange edition into the growing Pendergast repertoire. The first two books were concerned with the mystery of the museum beast, with Relic focusing on a fast-paced horror/thriller escape-or-die storyline and Reliquary coming back to tie-up loose ends, revealing the origins of the beast. In Cabinet of Curiosities, however, it’s all new ground. The museum is still there, lurking in the background, a place of indisputable marvels and evil administration. Smithback, the journalist from the first two books, is still around, and the enigmatic Pendergast moves from extra to front-and-center star – as it should be. But this time, it’s an entirely new plot, one that alternates between caginess and slow-paced horror.

Image by Богдан from Pixabay

The action/adventure is mostly sidelined by a sense of mystery and creeping, supernatural horror. We get more into Pendergast’s mind, hearing from him directly, and starting to learn bits and pieces about his history, his renegade ways, and his ability to know things that he shouldn’t and manipulate circumstances from the back of his idling Rolls Royce. I was delighted to see the authors starting to expand the mythos of this character and give him page space to grow, taking center stage. I was also glad to see the establishment of a strong series. The museum beast is a bit of grisly history now, but we see the trajectory, the weird and violent cases, half man-made horror, half supernatural shenanigans, that will carry the series and let Pendergast and perhaps the inimitable Smithback continue to grow and evolve.

The idea here is a bit out-there, though. It requires the forgiveness of a rapt audience. But, because Preston and Childs are so good at what they write, at creating an atmosphere and realistic, compelling characters, we give it our all and just go along with it. We even forgive the start/stop plot moments, the slow burn that suddenly accelerates only to extinguish intermittently. It’s not perfect, but it still is a dark, visceral magic that demands our edge-of-the-seat attention.

The conclusion is especially good, and it brings back that heart-pounding survival mode for all our (still alive!) characters. It throws Pendergast into a complicated moral situation as well and ends with a satisfying revelation about our favorite shady FBI agent. I will be back for more!

– Frances Carden

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Frances Carden
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